Fightlinker.com » Zach Arnoldhttp://fightlinker.com
Daily Updates on the world of FightingTue, 06 Dec 2016 18:00:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.8Yup, Japanese MMA is Still Deadhttp://fightlinker.com/yup-japanese-mma-still-dead/
http://fightlinker.com/yup-japanese-mma-still-dead/#commentsWed, 01 Jan 2014 12:00:21 +0000http://fightlinker.com/?p=532787Antonio Inoki’s 2013 Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan, brought to you with support from North Korean politicos. North Korea, the country always threatening to launch a nuclear strike on Japan. North Korea, the country ran by Kim Jong-Un, the crazy dictator who recently executed his uncle. Kim Jong-Un, whose father had close […]

Antonio Inoki’s 2013 Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan, brought to you with support from North Korean politicos. North Korea, the country always threatening to launch a nuclear strike on Japan. North Korea, the country ran by Kim Jong-Un, the crazy dictator who recently executed his uncle. Kim Jong-Un, whose father had close ties with Antonio Inoki because of Rikidozan and allowed Inoki to run Pyongyang Stadium for a two-day wrestling holiday in which Inoki beat Ric Flair.

This is what the Japanese MMA scene looks like 10 years after three major broadcast television networks financed gigantic combat sports shows.

13 years ago, Antonio Inoki’s vision of Japan being the top player in pro-wrestling & MMA was propelled to a height he never imagined. In order to make this happen, he had to gather the biggest promoters in the sport (PRIDE & K-1) in a room to work together. The flaw in the plan was the same as its strength: once you get heavy hitters involved in the scene, then it’s a free-for-all and everyone wants to destroy each other until there’s nothing left. That’s pretty much happened after the 2003 New Year’s Eve events in Japan.

Antonio Inoki came up with the concept of a hybrid MMA/wrestling show in 2000 that would take place at the Osaka Dome and be backed by Dream Stage Entertainment, the parent company of PRIDE. Eventually, PRIDE & Fuji TV would break off and do their own thing while K-1, the largest kickboxing promotion in the world, would work with Inoki on major events for Tokyo Broadcasting System. Then there was a split between K-1 and Inoki. The end result was a New Year’s Eve scenario on 2003 where you had PRIDE with a major event on Fuji TV versus K-1 with a major event on Tokyo Broadcasting System versus Antonio Inoki with a gong show on Nippon TV from Kobe Wing Stadium.

Think of it like this: imagine the powers-that-be at the NCAA deciding to run the BCS National title game head-to-head against the NFL Playoffs on multiple broadcast TV channels at the same time. It would be absolute football chaos.

The PRIDE show was headlined by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie vs. Hidehiko Yoshida. The K-1 event was headlined by Bob Sapp vs. Akebono and scored massive television ratings. A network hadn’t seen ratings for a fight of that nature since the Inoki vs. Ali bout from 1976 at Nippon Budokan that was officiated by “Judo” Gene LeBell. The Inoki event was headlined by PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko against New Japan ace Yuji Nagata. Fedor destroyed Nagata, which resulted in Nagata getting buried a few days later at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Tokyo Dome event. It took years for Nagata to wipe the stigma away from the losses to both Fedor & Cro Cop.

Impossible to clean up the mess

To make a long story short, PRIDE got pissed that Fedor fought on the Inoki event. So, revenge was exacted. Fedor eventually broke off from his manager, Miro Mijatovic. That started us down the path of the yakuza wars and eventually the police stepping in to put an end to everything. Fuji TV got hammered through a negative media campaign by weekly publication Shukan Gendai, which sensationalized the matter and put a bright spotlight on the proceedings. The “whistle-blower” was an admitted yakuza fixer for K-1 named Seiya Kawamata. Eventually, Fuji TV dropped their contract with PRIDE despite ratings that UFC would die to have in the States. PRIDE eventually died.

Then K-1 thought that everything would be gravy with them controlling the only broadcast TV pipeline in Japan. However, their ratings plummeted and they lost their backing. K-1 would die.

If you had told me 10 years ago that PRIDE & K-1 would be dead a decade later, I would have never in a million years had believed your prediction. But it happened. It happened because the TV networks pulled the plug and the yakuza rot behind the scenes became public news. The anti-yakuza sentiment grew in Japan and then came the new laws to try to cramp extortion practices. These laws carried some teeth, albeit not enough to stop banks from issuing some… creative loans. However, the laws directly impacted the black money that was backing combat sports in Japan.

And now look at what we are left with.

As one of the very few MMA writers to tackle the yakuza issue head-on, I have always been public in my anti-yakuza stance on combat sports. The volatility of the gang money simply created too much chaos and benefited the worst of the worst in society. I also understand that without that dark money, many players in the fight business would have never had jobs. For some individuals, there would be no fight business without the dark money.

I just thought that the players in the Japanese scene would figure out a way to make a buck in such a ripe market for combat sports without having to be propped up by the gangsters. Boy, was I wrong. It’s 2013 and Antonio Inoki is not only a politician one again, he’s the only one even bothering to run a show (albeit a hybrid MMA/wrestling event). With the same cast of characters from a decade ago. Even Fedor was there as a guest to make a cameo appearance. Nothing’s changed for Inoki. It never has. As someone who grew up in the Japanese combat sports scene, I find that utterly depressing and yet completely predictable.

]]>http://fightlinker.com/yup-japanese-mma-still-dead/feed/4Yeah, Ronda’s Gonna Have To Kill Herhttp://fightlinker.com/yeah-rondas-gonna-kill/
http://fightlinker.com/yeah-rondas-gonna-kill/#commentsWed, 25 Dec 2013 12:30:05 +0000http://fightlinker.com/?p=532731Ronda Rousey savaged Miesha Tate’s arm in their first fight. The betting public sees her as an 8-to-1 favorite at UFC 168 on Saturday. It’s not going to be enough to simply get a submission win in the rematch. Ronda Rousey’s biggest backers, and critics, want to see more out of her. They want to […]

Ronda Rousey savaged Miesha Tate’s arm in their first fight. The betting public sees her as an 8-to-1 favorite at UFC 168 on Saturday. It’s not going to be enough to simply get a submission win in the rematch. Ronda Rousey’s biggest backers, and critics, want to see more out of her. They want to see her totally destroy Miesha Tate in violent fashion.

And Ronda Rousey is partially to blame to raising expectations so high for destruction that anything short of broken bones will be viewed as a disappointment. When you are a super-strong Type A personality that manufactures chips on your shoulder as proficiently as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, fans don’t want to see ordinary accomplishments. They want complete annihilation.

You want to be known as an arm collector? Fine. Go break some more limbs. You want to be the queen of MMA? Go out and beat up everyone. Not only that, but you have to do it with bountiful sex appeal and a smile, too. And make sure your personality isn’t offensive or bluntly grating to young girls who are impressionable.

Balancing public relations while being a bad ass

Now you can understand why Ronda Rousey was so frustrated by her experience on The Ultimate Fighter. She came off as a miserable, self-centered, growth-stunted, Type A jerk who really loves hard or really hates hard. Her world is all about polarization, or so the video editors want you think. But unlike the Michael Jordans and Kobe Bryants of the world who have cadres of PR specialists at their disposable, Ronda Rousey’s inner circle is close knit. Their response to outsiders asking if Ronda on TUF is the real Ronda?

“That’s just Ronda being Ronda.”

Ronda made no secret of how desirous she is of physically punishing her rival. She only feels Miesha Tate is getting a second chance because she’s a hot piece of ass. Perhaps Ronda forgot about her comments about pre-fight sex with Jim Rome. It’s these kinds of contradictions, juxtaposed for mass consumption, that made Rousey a fascinating character in MMA. There’s a reason the UFC is all-in with her. She has star power. Everyone has an opinion about her, good or bad. In the fight business, the world thing a fan can say about you is that they have no opinion either way on you. Politics are black and white in a business where everyone is trying to make each other black and blue.

“Just to let you know, I’m going to f****** destroy you again.”

Tell us how you really feel about Miesha, Ronda.

“I don’t feel sorry for breaking her arm in half. Girl had it coming.”

So you plan on breaking her other arm or tearing an ACL?

“I’m going to break this girl.”

Apparently both mentally and physically. In a recent Southern California media scrum, Rousey claimed that many male & female fighters have offered to help her with training because they hate Tate & boyfriend Bryan Caraway so much. Listening to Rousey’s version of the truth, Tate & Caraway have supposedly burned every fight camp they’ve ever been a part of and that nobody likes them. Certainly, plenty of fighters like Tara LaRosa despise Tate. However, the gap between those inside the business and those outside the business about Miesha Tate’s likeability is wide and part of that is due in part to the way Ronda Rousey was portrayed on Ultimate Fighter.

Living in a black-and-white world

Part of what makes Ronda Rousey so successful is her ability to demonize her opponents, internally or externally. Anything Miesha Tate did on TUF was labeled as “b**** behavior.” The great athletes in sports internalize pressure and steel their resolve by blowing up the littlest of remarks into huge controversies. Motivation is never a problem for a champion like Ronda Rousey. Rousey admits that one mental tactic she uses for fight preparation is elevating her opponents, in her mind, when it comes to game planning & high-level skill. Always expect an opponent to be on their A-game with no mistakes. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Fear is always the best motivator.

Ronda Rousey needs polarizing rivals to have long-term appeal. I’m not sure Cat Zingano or Sara McMann fit that bill, but they’re her likely challengers after Miesha Tate at UFC 168. The one rival out there who could move the needle in a feud with Rousey is a fighter who won’t fight at 135 pounds, Cris Cyborg. 145 is difficult enough for Cyborg to make weight. But a catch-weight fight at 140 pounds is certainly plausible and there would be great history symmetry at play. Cyborg was the one who dethroned Gina Carano and Rousey views herself as the successor to Carano for high-profile women’s MMA fighters. The UFC has always been risk averse with fighters who fail drug tests but they are taking a chance backing Josh Barnett in 2013 and they may find it palatable to do the same with Cyborg in 2014 if it means a major box office fight with Rousey.

Conflict is what motivates Ronda Rousey and polarization is what makes her so marketable & fascinating. With Georges St. Pierre out of the picture & Anderson Silva on the last legs of his MMA career, pressure continues to mount on Ronda Rousey to be the face of UFC and to draw a high amount of PPV buys. The great irony is that Ronda losing to Tate would create a trilogy match that would be a box-office bonanza. But Ronda Rousey can’t allow that to happen and the UFC doesn’t think that it will happen, either. The expectations bar has been set so high at UFC 168 that anything other than broken limbs or unconsciousness is an unacceptable outcome.

]]>http://fightlinker.com/yeah-rondas-gonna-kill/feed/0The TRT Messhttp://fightlinker.com/trt-mess/
http://fightlinker.com/trt-mess/#commentsSun, 22 Dec 2013 13:00:10 +0000http://fightlinker.com/?p=532703With the news of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva being just the next fighter the UFC has given a permission slip for anabolic steroid (testosterone) usage, it’s no surprise that the most vocal supporters of UFC are coming out of the woodwork to try to defend the company — and defend steroid usage in combat sports. And […]

With the news of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva being just the next fighter the UFC has given a permission slip for anabolic steroid (testosterone) usage, it’s no surprise that the most vocal supporters of UFC are coming out of the woodwork to try to defend the company — and defend steroid usage in combat sports.

Sam Genovese wrote an article titled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Accept TRT. The article encapsulates pretty much every argument you can find online in defense of testosterone use in the UFC, albeit in a more concise & honest approach.

It’s the kind of defense that demonstrates why the UFC is struggling to gain credibility for their sport on a worldwide basis. The insiders & fans who are busy defending or accepting steroid usage in combat sports are, in my opinion, living in a bubble. I truly think that they believe what they are saying and are unrepentant about it. I admire honesty, but honesty sometimes can equal tone-deafness. Backing steroid usage in the UFC is as tone deaf as you can get.

Arguing against steroids in combat sports is not about morality

Look, no one thinks that making a moral argument against steroids in combat sports is a good way to persuade anyone about the dangers of such drug usage. I agree. You often have to ditch your morality to be successful in a blood sport, especially a sport that is legally classified as ultrahazardous. But if I was to tell you that allowing fighters to use synthetic testosterone automatically increased their chances of dying from a heart attack or stroke by 30%, would you dismiss that? If I was to tell you that testosterone usage extends careers for fighters in an attempt to allow them to both deliver & receive brain damage in bouts where participants are wearing four ounce gloves, would you be so receptive if you read what kind of brain damage resulted from such activity?

Your attitude might be more sober if you read preliminary results from a combat sports study being conducted at the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic center in Las Vegas. As Sam pointed out in his article defending anabolic steroid usage, it is a dangerous tool being used to absorb more head trauma.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know if elevated levels of testosterone directly led to this increased ability to take a punch, but I find it hard to believe that it had nothing to do with it.

What we know so far from the increasing amount of anabolic steroid users in UFC is that the steroid usage is not improving their win/loss record, but it’s giving older fighters more punching power and extending careers that perhaps should have been shut down due to the effects of damage to the endocrine system.

Playing with fire

That, in turn, is a real issue of legal liability for the UFC — especially when they are the ones giving out the testosterone permission slips. And that is why the issue is so very toxic for the UFC long-term: they have changed the rules of engagement when it comes to doping in combat sports. Before the Fertitta empire started promoting UFC, there was no world in which fighters started crying hypogonadism and a need for testosterone. There wasn’t a world where fighters were talking about the effects of “Low T” in their early 30s. You can thank Big Pharma and their massive ad campaigns pushing products like Axiron or supplement makers pushing products like Ageless Male as a tool for out-of-shape guys in their 40s to try to increase their sex drive and overall vitality.

When abused, testosterone (anabolic steroid) usage is playing a medical game of Russian Roulette.

In the years that I have railed against testosterone usage in MMA, I have done so strictly on the issue of health & safety. It is making an already dangerous sport that much more dangerous. It makes drug testing look like an even bigger joke than it is. When the people handling the drug testing are also the ones who are giving the permission slips to use steroids, you know the system is screwed up. It’s not intellectually honest to argue otherwise.

Sam argues that since UFC has helped open the floodgates for legalized doping that therefore there’s no turning back and we should just accept the landscape that Zuffa HQ has created.

Regardless, TRT is the way of life nowadays in the UFC. As a fan you can either learn to love it (as I have) or continue to beat your head against a brick wall as more and more fighters get on the “Jesus juice.”

When I look at the things it allows fighters to do, such as allowing Belfort to blow dudes doors off with his newfound kicking abilities, it is hard to argue against the results.

If TRT wasn’t causing such drastic and exciting changes in fighters, it would be much harder to be apathetic about its use.

There is a reason why I don’t use the phrase “TRT.” Using TRT is a cute way for Big Pharma and steroid defenders to try to make anabolic steroid usage seem innocuous. It’s no different than political wordsmiths like George Lakoff or Frank Luntz focus group-testing voters in trying to figure out which buzzwords are palatable for the masses.

Vitor Belfort is a whipping boy for testosterone usage for a reason. He got busted for steroids before and now he’s been on a hot streak since using anabolics. Chael Sonnen, on the other hand, remains a celebrated figure despite being a complete and total charlatan on drug usage. Using testosterone doesn’t make you a better fighter but it does set the table for you to absorb more damage in your career. You, as a fighter, are not promised a God-given right to fight. There is no case law citing the Americans with Disabilities Act that states that you have a right to use steroids in order to make more money. However, there is so much greed and so much cognitive dissonance in combat sports right now regarding testosterone usage that nobody is seemingly able to have an honest conversation about what the real expectations are for fighters in an ultrahazardous sport. As John Hackleman, Chuck Liddell’s famous trainer, noted we have a system where promoters and regulators are enabling fighters to use anabolic steroids but can’t use insulin, HGH, marijuana, or Benzodiazepine. Nick Diaz got railroaded for his marijuana usage in Nevada while guys like Chael Sonnen become advisers to Keith Kizer on steroids. And then people turn around and laugh at guys like Josh Barnett for failing standard drug tests because they weren’t smart enough to ask for permission to use steroids.

This is the kind of environment that the UFC and its fans want to try to push onto the masses as some version of a clean, “safer-than-boxing” sport? The environment that the UFC has created deserves outright scorn. What Zuffa and their most-preferred-regulators have done is box supporters of Mixed Martial Arts into a corner because it’s impossible, with a straight face, to argue with critics of MMA about the health & safety of the sport when the powers-that-be are enabling or promoting a pro-steroid agenda under the guise that 30-somethings are suffering from “low T.”

]]>http://fightlinker.com/trt-mess/feed/4UFC 169 vs. the Super Bowl? Uh-Ohhttp://fightlinker.com/ufc-169-vs-super-bowl-uh-oh/
http://fightlinker.com/ufc-169-vs-super-bowl-uh-oh/#commentsSat, 21 Dec 2013 13:00:50 +0000http://fightlinker.com/?p=532698When the NFL announced the Super Bowl at Metlife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey area for February 2014, you could hear the screams from Madison Avenue. An outdoor stadium… in the Northeast… in early February… for a sporting event that only rich fat cats & corporate executives can afford to buy tickets for. Big […]

When the NFL announced the Super Bowl at Metlife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey area for February 2014, you could hear the screams from Madison Avenue. An outdoor stadium… in the Northeast… in early February… for a sporting event that only rich fat cats & corporate executives can afford to buy tickets for. Big Apple or not, Metlife Stadium isn’t exactly the kind of warm-weather climate you envision for the biggest sporting event of the year.

It’s not just the suits who are unhappy about what’s coming at Metlife. Fox, which will be heavily invested in the broadcast, has analysts who are less than pleased. Terry Bradshaw gave a piece of his mind when talking about the weather and the traffic. Who can blame him?

And if those first-world problems aren’t enough of a hassle, you have the Super Bowl committee at Metlife admonishing any potential fans from tailgating in the parking lot. Must be un-American or something. We wouldn’t want the parking lot to smell like Kansas City BBQ or have cars blocking the limos carrying the A-list celebrities who won’t even bother watching the game itself.

UFC’s successful Super Bowl weekend show formula

Hoping to capitalize on Super Bowl weekend, the UFC has previous ran PPV events in Las Vegas to capture the gambling public who loves to party and watch football. It’s been a successful formula in the past. This year, the UFC decided to run two big shows in February — one for Super Bowl weekend and a second event in late February for Las Vegas. The concept of running the Super Bowl weekend show in the same area as the Super Bowl sounded like a great idea.

However, the fight card for UFC 169 is lacking in star power. It’s headlined by Dominick Cruz vs. Renan Barao and Jose Aldo vs. Ricardo Lamas. It’s basically a WEC card advertised as a UFC event. And as we’ve seen recently with the UFC on Fox 9 ratings (1.8 national rating), the small guys don’t sell PPVs and they aren’t the biggest ticket sellers. Anyone under 155 pounds (Lightweight) struggles to move the needle nationally. UFC 169 could have featured a re-match between Jon Jones & Alexander Gustafsson but that was immediately dismissed for various reasons. Jon Jones is still reportedly injured. For a Super Bowl weekend show, Jones/Gustafsson would have fit the bill as a highly-desired match given how close & bloody the first encounter was. Who wouldn’t want to pay for it?

So, UFC 169 has some issues with star power. That’s OK. The fight quality should be good, although it may not make up for the celebrity deficit. Nonetheless, it’s Super Bowl weekend. What else are people going to do on a Saturday night in an area with horrible weather. They can either go to watch a great fight show or they can stay at home to avoid the bad weather.

There’s that bad weather factor again. It’s a pain in the ass for sports fans in the Northeast. And now it may become a real pain in the ass for UFC management.

The great debate over holding the Super Bowl at Metlife Stadium was all about the weather. According to ESPN New York and other New York metro news outlets, there are contingency plans in place for the Super Bowl if it cannot take place on a Sunday. If bad weather makes the situation untenable, the NFL could make a call at the last-minute to run the Super Bowl on a Monday night… or Saturday night.

Yeah, the same night as the scheduled UFC 169 PPV.

What to do?

The Super Bowl vs. UFC’s Super Bowl weekend show on the same night. Guess which party would lose that battle?

The prospects of UFC running a PPV against the Super Bowl sound completely absurd and unrealistic. And, yet, this is a possible, realistic situation staring at the face of UFC management. They are trapped. What can they do? If they cancel the show and move it back a week or up a week, it will cost a lot of money to re-do advertising, refund/reschedule tickets, and would be a disservice to fans who have already made travel plans to watch the event. However, if the UFC runs the show on a Saturday night and can’t back away from the arrangement with the Super Bowl airing that same night on television, there’s going to be some empty seats and a flat atmosphere in Newark.

I have no answers. Prudential Arena has no answers. The UFC has no answers. Fox, broadcast partner of both UFC & the NFL, has no immediate answers. This is what happens when an entity, as powerful as the NFL may be, leaves their major sporting event in the hands of Mother Nature. This may turn out to be the Super Bowl that has everyone muttering obscenities.